Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for BEARD
BEAR'-CLOTH, or BEAR'ING-CLOTHBEARD
BEARD, n. [berd; Sax. beard; D. baard; Ger. and Dan. bart; L. barba; Russ. boroda, the beard and the chin. As this word is from bear, the pronunciation beerd is very improper.]
- The hair that grows on the chin, lips and adjacent parts of the face, chiefly of male adults; hence a mark of virility. A gray beard, long beard, and reverend beard, are terms for old age.
- Beard is sometimes used for the face; and to do a thing to a man's beard, is to do it in defiance, or to his face. – Johnson.
- The awn or sharp prickles on the ears of corn. But more technically, parallel hairs or a tuft of stiff hairs terminating the leaves of plants, a species of pubescence. By some authors the name is given to the lower lip of a ringent corol. – Martyn.
- A barb or sharp point of an arrow, or other instrument, bent backward from the end to prevent its being easily drawn out.
- The beard or chuck of a horse, is that part which bears the curb of a bridle, underneath the lower mandible and above the chin. – Farrier's Dict. Encyc.
- The rays of a comet, emitted toward that part of the heaven to which its proper motion seems to direct it. – Encyc.
- The threads or hairs of an oyster, muscle or similar shell-fish, by which they fasten themselves to stones. – Encyc.
- In insects, two small, oblong, fleshy bodies, placed just above the trunk, as in gnats, moths and butterflies. – Encyc.
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